By Bill Walton / Presidio Sentinel News / January 7, 2024
It’s as if Todd Gloria wakes up every day and asks himself what is the worst thing I can do today for San Diego.
This time, in a seemingly endless litany of disastrous choices, Todd Gloria is proposing in his new and singularly revised Plan Hillcrest, another slippery, slimy, and shady real estate deal that will have immediate and devastating consequences for Uptown and ultimately all of San Diego.
This is not surprising given Todd Gloria’s history. Todd Gloria is a career politician, who’s never had another job. Todd Gloria has been feeding and feasting at the public and donor trough his entire career. This most recent frenzy follows an all too familiar path.
In Todd Gloria’s race to infamy and the bottom, there’s always a supposed rush to close the deal, there’s never any transparency, the critical details are never disclosed, the public’s interests are ignored, the donor and special interest class gets whatever they want, Todd Gloria and the real estate developers all rake in enormous amounts of money, and everybody else loses.
Plan Hillcrest was originally supposed to address 11 acres in the core of Hillcrest.
Now, the new Todd Gloria Plan Hillcrest has somehow exploded to cover 400 acres of the total 2,700 covered in the Uptown planning area. It calls for the construction of 19,000 new units with buildings of 30 stories and higher, all adding 50,000 more people into Hillcrest. Hillcrest is already one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in all of San Diego. It is one of 6 neighborhoods in Uptown, whose total population is under 60,000 people.
Todd Gloria is trying to create two completely new zoning designations with massive increases in population density. Todd Gloria’s new Hillcrest plan does not include the infrastructure that is needed to support what he is proposing. There are no plans for schools, libraries, fire-stations or parks. Transportation requirements are ignored and dismissed. Environmental impact is discarded.
Pie in the sky is promised, but never delivered.
Hillcrest is already the only Uptown neighborhood that does not have a park. Todd Gloria wants to jam a new population the size of the city of Poway, into an area the size of De Anza Cove. Todd Gloria wants to add 50,000 new people to Hillcrest, right now, while Todd Gloria’s own government projections for our entire San Diego region over the next 37 years only predict 40,000 total new people.
Todd Gloria is engaged in yet another money grab. We’ve seen this before, all too often. This is how Todd Gloria rolls.
Todd Gloria’s well documented history is rife with this same sort of behavior—deceit, deception, smoke, and mirrors. And money in his pocket.
Todd Gloria and his Plan Hillcrest are not in the best interests of San Diego, Hillcrest, Uptown, or the people of this once great city. Todd Gloria and his new Plan Hillcrest must be stopped.
Now is not soon enough.
Bill Walton, the basketball legend, is a San Diego native, born downtown, raised in La Mesa, and has lived in the same Hillcrest home for more that 44 years.
New development projects of varying sizes are being added to the uptown skyline on a daily basis.
As I commented in a previous article, even many of his own supporters (at least those I personally know here in Hillcrest) don’t like him and know very well how unscrupulous he is. They support him anyway due to some type of personal benefit they think they’ll get from another term. Again, it’s not just crooked people in office (are there any other kind that choose this line of work?), but crooked voters.
And the attitude of labor unions is build anything, anywhere as long as membership is working. While I support unions in general, I have difference when the political money and agreements are above what common sense dictates. Even more troubling is infrastructure (the lack of planning), the backbone to a foundation of growth, is ignored for the quick buck, when it should be the first thing in planning.
“The updated Plan Hillcrest allows for building significantly more housing in Hillcrest to help address our critical housing shortage”
“Therefore Todd Gloria sucks”
This is a quality opinion piece that really did its research. It definitely isn’t just being reactionary based on hearing about the height of some buildings. Good thing Bill doesn’t work in urban planning.
As if Todd Gloria knows the first thing about urban planning. If he did, he wouldn’t be trying to do exactly what Bill states – trying to add an additional 50k people with zero additional infrastructure. You have to either be blind or have your head completely in the sand not to see what he has done and is doing to our once beautiful city. No planning whatsoever- just a huge money grab for him and his developer buddies. Not to mention 101 Ash St which San Diego taxpayers are paying around 300k a day for. He should lose his job for that alone. He’s despicable and I can’t wait to vote him out.
Bill Walton’s article hits the nail squarely on the head. We need politicians who have common sense, and none of the incumbents fit that bill, at all. New faces should gave common sense, listen to ALL their constituents, not just the ones nodding their heads up and down in agreement with their bosses crazy wants. Thank you Bill Walton.
Bill: RUN FOR MAYOR!!! Majority of voters dislike what has happened to this City on Gloria’s watch. Give us all a choice~
YES! Bill pleaee do run for mayor. I will support you and work to get you elected. We need you.
I’m excited to hear this kind of talk in our local politics as supply side liberals sell us on trickle down economics but Bill lost all credibility when he threw his weight behind the scam/joke of Sunbreak Ranch.
OddTodd is creepy. Vote it out!
His waffling speech, tonight 01.10.24, so Mussolini & Drumpf-life.
Can’t Dems field be any better??
YES! Todd must go. ASAP. We need mayor Bill Walton.
Maybe.
Hopefully there will be some honest
Picks.
Trouble is boat rockers who want to set things straight get pounced on.
Gloria is the Problem, Smiechowski is the solution.
Todd is owned by the developers of this City. Stop the sale of City owned land to fat cat political donors vote for Dan.
The pension system is a rip off, Gloria is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars when he retires. Dan will put all new San Diego employees on social security.
Dan will transform Horton Plaza into a “15 minute city’.”
Take back San Diego from the pawn of the development community, VOTE DAN THE MILLION MILE MAN FOR MAYOR!
I guess those who have fits about the City employees pension didn’t know it was the gullible and foolish voters who voted that stupid idea out of Social Security and into a privately funded retirement plan. It’s been the mismanagement of funds that has put the pension fund in the red. Not the employees. Greed of the City manager and mayor’s lack of knowledge that put the employees deductions into their system on a get rich quick scheme. THEN the bottom dropped out of the market and the City lost money. It’s not the fault of the retired city employe, as this mayor augmented the financial issues and drove the City into a million dollar deficit on wasteful and foolish spending on his special interest head nodders wants, and forgot all about City needs.
An interesting employee pension story.
https://timesofsandiego.com/opinion/2024/03/03/proposed-escondido-sales-tax-increase-hides-the-real-reason-public-employee-pensions/
If building the housing San Diego needs on a 6 lane, car-centric, fast-food drive-thru filled, auto shop-lined, and billboard-littered hell that is El Cajon Boulevard is “ruining Uptown” then I’m not sure what your solution is to address the housing shortage. Bulldowsing more native habitat in Poway? I welcome the new development, and El Cajon Boulevard definitely has the infrastructure to support it.